Tiger all set to roar towards his 15th Major at Turnberry

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<strong>TIGER WOODS</strong> has had a frustrating 18 months with his knee injury, but is now well on the road to recovery and is beginning to hit top form. He finished a disappointing 12th in his last Open Championship in 2007, but won both years prior to that and will be going for his fourth Claret Jug this week. There have only ever been three Opens at Turnberry and all the statistics point to Woods having a very strong four days. All three previous winners have hailed from overseas (Nick Price in 1994, Greg Norman in 1986 and Tom Watson in 1977) and all of those were world No1&rsquo;s at the time, suggesting that the cream rises to the top at the Ayrshire course.<br /><br />Woods has been scouring the videos of the infamous 1977 &lsquo;Duel in the Sun&rsquo; between Watson and Nicklaus and has admitted to finding the course challenging in practice. As is always the case at Scottish links courses, the weather will have a big say on the shape of the tournament and Tiger is likely to thrive more than most in adverse conditions. He&rsquo;s playing well at the moment, with three PGA Tour wins to his name already this year, and it was the draw that beat him at the US Open. He is available at 3.65 on Betdaq and I would advise taking that pre-tournament &ndash; he could be a lot shorter come Thursday evening.<br /><br />Some punters won&rsquo;t be able to forgive <strong>KENNY PERRY</strong> following his capitulation at Augusta in April, but it would be unwise to write-off the 48-year-old. His record at The Open is pretty good, having finished in the top 20 in 2003, 2004 and 2005, and it&rsquo;s fair to say that he&rsquo;s a much improved player over the last three years. He has two Tour wins to his name in 2009 and is a very big price at 55/1 with Boylesports, who are paying each-way the first eight places until midnight tonight. A special mention must also go out to Paddy Power who are offering seven places and Sporting Index who have an index that offers points down to 10th place.<br /><strong><br />BEN CURTIS</strong> won the Open back in 2003 and he&rsquo;s been a measure of consistency so far this season, making the cut in 12 of his 13 tournaments and finishing fourth behind Kenny Perry at the recent Travelers Championship. He looks excellent value at 9/2 to be the top former winner without Tiger Woods.<br /><br />If the wind gets up during the four days, Turnberry will be a much more difficult place to play than people think &ndash; Greg Norman won here in 1986 on level par after 280 shots. Sporting Index quote the winner&rsquo;s score at 274-275 and with seven of the last eight Open winner&rsquo;s posting a score of 274 or higher, there looks to be very little downside in buying at 275.<br /><br /><strong>POINTERS...</strong><br /><strong>Tiger Woods</strong> &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 5/2 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Betdaq<br /><strong>Kenny Perry</strong> e/w&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 50/1 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Boylesports (8 places)<br /><strong>Ben Curtis</strong>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 9/2 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Top former winner w/o Tiger<br />Buy the winner&rsquo;s score at 275 with Sporting Index